Education: Christian schools in Nigeria issue warning to WAEC

Christian schools in Nigeria under the aegis of the Association of Christian Schools in Nigeria (ACSN) have threatened to withdraw from examinations conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).

They said this in reaction to recent decision to disqualify their schools from participating in the supervision of the forthcoming WAEC examinations on grounds of malpractices.

President of the association, Dr. Ekaete Ettang, on Thursday in Jos, expressed shock that WAEC would take such a decision to stigmatise teachers from Christian schools as cheats in spite of the credibility the teachers had maintained over time.

Ettang told newsmen: “Following the recent decision by the WAEC to disqualify Christian schools teachers from participating in the supervision of the forthcoming WAEC examinations on grounds of malpractices, while still using some of our schools as custodian centres, we the members of the ACSN met on March 21, 2018 at St John’s College, Jos, Plateau State, and we call on WAEC and Ministries of Education to provide statistics to show the trends in the examination malpractices across the schools which forms the basis for their decision.

“The Christian schools demand that laws and legislations that prohibit teachers from Christian schools from supervising WAEC examinations be made available as they have been participating in this process over the years based on written communications that are on records.

”As a group, we say the stigmatisation of teachers from Christian schools as cheats is most unfortunate and unacceptable to us and we therefore demand that WAEC reverses this decision forthwith and tenders a public apology to the Christian schools for this misrepresentation. If WAEC does not reverse this decision and planned implementation, all Christian schools would boycott future WAEC examinations.

“The association has agreed that WAEC should be involving all stakeholders in the planning, conduct of exams, resolving all the issues affecting the process, as well as in the final decisions on related matters, for ownership and collective wisdom, ACSN is willing to make positive contribution as key stakeholders in this regard.

“Given the historical contribution of Christian education towards Nigeria educational system and development of the society, disqualifying Christian teachers from supervising WAEC contradicts what we rightfully deserve and which has done irreparable damage to our reputation, character, integrity and identity as a group.

“In view of this, ACSN demand that WAEC cancels the order and reverts to status quo where credible teachers from Christian schools in Nigeria were involved in the supervision of WAEC examinations as failure to do so all Christian schools nation-wide will withdraw from future WAEC examinations.”